Twitter is developing a photo filter tool to compete with Instagram

Twitter is reportedly planning to implement a photo filter system similar to Facebook’s Instagram that will allow users to bypass the app and upload edited pictures directly to the microblogging site. The project is still a few months out according to anonymous Twitter employees that recently spoke with The New York Times.

The company had been looking into adding this type of feature for some time but when Facebook announced plans to buy Instagram, they had to accelerate those plans.

Some believed that Twitter might follow in the footsteps of Facebook and purchase an established photo editing app. Source say that co-founder Jack Dorsey and chief executive Dick Costolo did in fact met with several companies to discuss an acquisition.

As it turned out, they deemed an investment of that scale wasn’t worth the money and they opted to build their own software instead. Executives hope the feature will appeal to V.I.T.’s (what Twitter calls Very Important Tweeters) that typically use Instagram to edit photos before uploading them to Twitter. People in this category include athletes, celebrities and other public personalities.

These same sources also claim that Twitter is looking into the possibility of adding video uploading and editing tools that would allow users to bypass Google’s YouTube.

Twitter boasts 140 million users worldwide responsible for roughly 340 million tweets each day. Instagram had more than 100 million Android and iOS users at last count – a figure that’s likely increased following the Facebook deal.

A spokesperson for Twitter declined to comment on the story, we’re told.